Concrete pile



J. BURNS CONCRETE FILE March 10, 1925- 1,529,113

Filed Aug. 23, 1923 JOSEPH 50/2/75 INVENTOR.

A TTORNEY Patented Mar. 10, 1925.

UNITED STATES JOSEPE IB URNS, OF COLN, NEBRASKA.

condemn PILE.

Application filed Kugust arm-192;. Serial No. esse'ie.

To all whom it may comm:

Be it known that I, JosEPH BURNS, a citizen of the United States,residing at Iiincoln, in the county of Lancaster and State of Nebraska,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Concrete Piles, ofwhich the following is aspecification.

lMy invention relates to concrete piles,

and more particularly to concrete piles of the kind which are sunk intocavities excavated by the action of air or water under pressure.

I am aware that air and water have been used separately and incombination for a great many years, and that piles embodying the broadidea have gone into extensive use. The great difiiculty with prior typesofconcrete piles has been their extremely limited range of usefulness.In general, they have been designed or use only with one or more fluidmediums, but these fluid mediums could not be used .interchangeably.Then too, no pile has been developed heretofore in which the volume ofthe fluent discharged could be varied to suitthe special conditionsunder which the work was to be done.

It is well known that soil conditions vary widely, even in the samelocality. A pile which can be sunk easily in one place is apt toencounter conditions a few feet away in which it will be found" to beimpossible to sink it, merely because of differences in the texture orcharacter of the soils. Then too, there is variation encountered insoils at different de ths. It is apparent that a concrete pile w 'ch hasbeen designed to be sunk in only one kind of soil will meet withdilficulties when another kind of soil is encountered, and that withsuch a pile the only solution is to force it down at a heavy expense intime, labor, and mechanical power. The main object of my invention is inbrief the provision of a pile which can readily, easily, and quickly beadapted to be sunk in any soil whereit desired to sinksuch piles. Otherobjects will appear inthe description.

Referring now to the drawings, in which like referencev characters referto like parts in the following description,

Figure l is an elevation view of my concrete pile. I o I Figure 2 is alongitudinal sectional view of the same pile. V

Figure 3 is a cross sectional view of the pile.

the pile. Each pipe 14 has firmly secure 7 thereto an anchor 15 forpreventing dis- Figure 4 is a view in perspective of one of the lateralpipes which I use in my concrete pile, showing both the anchor for thepipe and the outlet.

Figure 5' is a view in perspective of one of the caps which I use incombination with the lateral pipes.

Figure 6 is across sectional view of the cap.

Figure 7 is a cross sectional view of a modified form of my cap.

My pile is constructed throughout ofconcrete, except for some of thefeatures where by its sinking is facilitated. The bottom is preferablyprovided with the usual cast iron nose 10 which protects the pile andprevents its crushing under the repeated impacts when it is lifted anddropped. Likewise, the tube 11 at the upper end of the pile is anchoredby means of rods or pipes 12 which are secured to the tube 11 and castinto the concrete. With this arrangement, there is no danger'ofaccidentally breaking the connection between the pile and the hoistingmechanism. The pipes 12 give sufficient anchorage to sustain the weightof the pile, but they also prevent the loosening of the parts due totorsional strains encountered during the sinking of the pile. Thisconstruction, so far as I am aware, has not heretofore been employed. Ifdesired, the pipes 12may be left open at both of their ends to thusserve as conduits from the interior of the pile, and if further desired,

they may be capped as are the lower horizontal pipes, but in any casetheir primary function is to serve as anchors.

Theipile is provided with a centralchannel extending from the nose 10 tothe top.

As before stated, the tube 11 is cast into the pile at the top of thechannel,,and this tube is provided with connections, including the inletpipe whereby water, air or other fluid may be forced under pressure intothe channel.

At intervals throughout thelength of the pile are pipes 14 which serveas exits for.

the fluid in the channel, which pipes are also cast into the c'oncreteatthe time of fopmin placement of the tubewhen the tube is sub- ]ected tothe torsional strains resulting from the adjustments which constitute animportant feature of my invention. Each pipe 14 has a screw threaded endwhich projects the pile. T 's projecting end should be as whereby theforce and volumes small as possible in order to avoid orminimizeobstruction to the descent of the pile, but also to reduce the liabilityof damage to the exposed ends of the pipes 14.

Each pipe 14 has an aperture 16 in its upper surface and at its outerend. The ca 17, shownin Figures and 6, is provi ed for the purpose ofadjusting the size of the fluid exits. The ca s-are mternall screwthreaded and are eac provided wit a number of orifices 18. While I donot desire torestrict myself to any particular number of orifices 18, Iprefer to construct the caps with three orifices in each cap the--orifices varying in size, with the largest av-' ing the same size asthe opening 16' in the pipe 14. They are arranged circumferentially onthe periphery of the cap and are so ositioned that they will register inturn the opening 16 as the'ca is being turned on the pipe 14. For faci'tatin the turning of the cap, I provide a shoul ered head 19 to.afl'ord means for engaging the ca with a wrench;

he pile is assembled for sinking as shown in Figuresl and 2. Theconnections at the upper end of thepile are secured to the pipe 11. Thepipe '20 is passed centrally through the channel and terminates at itslower end in the nose, having its single outlet in the nose, the inletend of the plpe being shown at 21.

Assuming that a stream of water or air is forced under pressure throughthe opening 21, it will be forced out through the nose and in advance ofthe pile to excavate a path forthe pile in the usual manner. If such astream isforced through the opening.13 it will emerge through the 03cmings 16 to carry away the soil loosene at the bottom of the excavation.L

My invention resides very largely in the means which I have providedwhereb water and air may be used interchan eab y, and

one of the streams may be adj sted .3 to the oo dition and character ofthe soil where it is desired to sink the pile. If the nature of the soilis such that the best results can be obtained by the use of water aloneand in liberal quantities at the sides of the pile, the ad- ISIS water,inlet pipes Hand 21 with aso'urce of air justment is made with thelargest orifice 18 in,re 'stry with the o ening 16, and water is orcedthrough bot inlets 13 and 21. Ifhowever the soil is such that smallerstreams of greater force are desired at the sides' 'of the pile, thenthe adjustment is made with one of the smaller orifices 18 registeringwith the opening 16 ofthe pipe 151. If the special conditions make itmore desirable to use air exclusively rather than it is only necessary'to connect the e change from air toflwater or from localities wherebridges are to be erected over streams which have a very small flow ofwater or none at all, the cost of an adequate supply of water forsinking the pile is apt to be prohibitive. In such localities I-increase the cutting action of the water by nozzling down thestreams ofwater to thus sink the piles with a greatly reduced supply of water.

When it becomes necessary to use water for tearing away the soil inadvance of the sinking pile, but to use air for transporting theloosened soil to, the top, the water forced under pressurel through theinlet e 21 down to and through the nose of the is pi pi e while the airis forced under pressure through the inlet pipe 13 whence it emergesthrough the predetermined orifice 18. If the soil is such that air willhave the greater cutting power and water will have the greatertransporting power, then the connections are so made that the air willemerge. through the opening at the bottom of the pile while the waterwill leave through the openings 16 and 18 at the sides of the pile. Thepoint however is that all of theseiadjustments can be made quickly andeasily, and that they can be altered at will as the different strata lofsoils are encountered. I

I have described. herein the preferred embodiment of my invention, butit isapparent that numerous variations could be worked out, all fallingwithin the scope of my in vention. The important features are first, theprovision of a pile wherein air and water under pressure can be usedinterchan either alone or both together, secon the provision of meansfor adjustm the exits at the sides ofthe pile; and third, the provisionof features whereb the pile will not break under its Wei ht w ile it isbeingreeatedly hoisted. he idea of adjustment or the side exits issusceptible of many modifications of the adjustment described above. Oneof these modifications contemplates corresponding to the orifices 18,whereby the water or air will be forced out as through a nozzle.

Having thus described my invention in terms which will be readilyunderstood by others skilled in the art to'which it pertains, what Ibelieve to be new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the UnitedStates is A concrete pile which is hollow lengththe provision of conicalorifices 18" ably pipes having outlet openings adjacent the wise fromits upper end to a point adjacent lateral surface of the pile, screwthreaded l0 its, lower end, the hollow portion of said means foradjusting the size of the openings, *pile being adapted to serve as afluidconand means for anchoring said pipes in the duit, means forconducting a fluid under concrete pile for preventing the displacing 5pressure into the hollow portion of said of said pipes during theadjustment of the pile, a plurality of pipes positioned for consize ofthe outlet openings. l5 veying the fluid from the holloyv portion; of Intestimony whereof I aflix my signature. the pile to the lateral surfacethereof, said L K JOSEPH BURNS.

